There’s a beautiful moment in your life when for the first time, you make something that you didn’t think you were good enough to cook. For me, I have a distinct memory of being about 13 and making French Onion Soup out of “At Home With The French Classics” by Richard Grausman. This was my Mom’s book and I used to leaf through it enthralled by the idea of “Bouillabaisse” or “Beef Bourguignon” in this far flung place called France. Noticing I had the cooking bug early, my mother did something very simple and smart, she used to let me cook dinner once a week. She’d give me a couple bucks for groceries and let me make whatever I wanted. I’m sure a lot of the food was garbage early (my recipes were always ahead of my skill, I remember attempting a lot of weird stuff like mustard ice cream with gazpacho) but I’ll never forget the first time I made French Onion Soup. It just turned out better than expected. This is most likely do to blind luck but the onions were rich ad caramelized, the beef broth was full of flavor and the the baguette and gruyere bubbled over the sides and got crispy like the one time I had it in a restaurant. Most importantly, I remember my family liked it. I think my mom even bought me those little cheap knock-off French Onion Soup bowls for my birthday that year.
I started cooking very young, I was part of a generation parked in front of the Food Network. I cut every vegetable in my parents fridge mimicking Emeril or young Jamie Oliver. I’d dice the celery, attempt to julienne the carrots, it used to drive my folks insane because no fruit or vegetable was ever left whole.
The point is that I was just young enough that I didn’t really understand failure I was just curious and interested. I think this is the #1 mindset to have learning cooking, curiosity. I am certain I made many, many terrible tasting dishes before that French Onion Soup and my knife cuts were bad but over time things start coming together.
IF YOU ARE STARTING OUT understand you will slog through a small learning curve but all of a sudden (and sooner then you think) you will make something that you and someone else knows tastes good. Since that soup, I have blown innumerable dishes, burnt stuff, torched things, over seasoned, under seasoned and dried out all sorts of ingredients but I constantly chase that feeling of creating something delicious.
Enjoy the chase.
